It is not the first time that this topic occupies us. But it is that China is very stealthily taking steps to get closer to our Latin American territory through those with whom it has much to share.
Beatriz de Majo / El Político
It is no longer about Venezuela or Cuba that attracts the attention of the hierarchy. The ideological issue is not present, and these two former allies do not have much to offer in the economic field.
Not even Venezuela, a country that became the great Oil Mecca, is today present on the strategic radar of the Chinese.
This time, it is the continental pacific shore that motivates his intentions in favor of a greater rapprochement.
China is interested in the peaceful shore
Last September, the Chinese capital made known its interest in participating in the Comprehensive and Progressive Treaty of Trans-Pacific Partnership. (Comprehensive and Progressive Treaty of Trans-Pacific Partnership), A free trade agreement between countries facing the Pacific Ocean.
The United States had withdrawn from this Free Trade pledge and China aspired to occupy an important position in it. The eleven signatory countries of the CPTPP, Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Canada, Chile, Malaysia, Mexico, Japan, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, and Vietnam, are seen from China as members of influential regional trade and political integration blocs.
Chile, Mexico, and Peru have had very dynamic trade relations with China for thirty years, which includes imports and exports in both directions.
China, it is worth saying, is the most essential trading partner of both Chile and Peru, and therefore, they are a vital gateway for trade as well as investment.
But … it is not so easy for China
China’s entry into the CPTPP, however, is not sung. For this to take place, the formal acceptance of the Asian giant of principles related to Free Trade that are ignored there is required. Market interventionism is one of them.
But equally, respect for human rights will be a matter of consideration when the current members sit down to consider the application made from Beijing.
The very close ties of some countries in the region with the United States are also matters that limit their willingness to explicitly welcome the Chinese to this Agreement.
Finally, the subject of Taiwan will also be on the table when it is necessary to have the last word on its formal incorporation.
China is determined
But none of this discourages the Asian giant from planting its pike in Flanders.
Rather, at the beginning of this month, Xi Jinping has returned under his jurisdiction. During a very high-level meeting held in Mexico, he urged the member countries of the Community of Latin American and the Caribbean States to "add new impetus" to bilateral cooperation with China. To face "global turmoil."
There is no doubt about his determination, and it cannot be otherwise.
During the first three quarters of 2021, trade between China and our countries reached $331 billion. It represents an increase of 45.5% compared to the same period of the year of the pandemic. The goal is 500,000 million within 3 years.
So what we will see in the near future is greater commercial proactivity and new proposals for economic cooperation in the region as such and in the countries that they want to capture as figureheads. That is to say, those of the Pacific Arc in the first instance.
It is well known how a rapprochement with Costa Rica and Colombia has already begun. Where in addition to exchange, cooperation aspects are raised in the field of high technologies.
